Government Shouldn't Take Choice Off The Table

It used to be that the question of whether your butt is too big was between you, your bathroom mirror and your significant other. Now, some say government has an interest in how snugly your jeans fit.

Your weight is the government's business, those who believe in nanny government say, because it's a public health issue. Overweight people cost more in health care expenses, so government is justified in using the power of the state to tax and regulate food production, marketing and consumption.

Besides, it's for your own good. Behind every proposal to place a special tax on Twinkies or ban soda on school grounds is this assumption: Average Americans aren't smart enough to make good choices about what they eat. For decisions of that kind, you need a specially educated bureaucrat.

If you are overweight, it's certainly not your fault. The manipulative marketers at McDonald's made you fat, force-feeding you fries like you're human foie gras. The length of your belt has nothing to do with your soft spot for second helpings or agreeing with a quote some attribute to Mark Twain, "I take my only exercise acting as a pallbearer at the funerals of my friends who exercise regularly."

This is why fat alarmists call obesity a disease or even an epidemic, akin to swine flu, something that spreads from one innocent person to another. If obesity is a disease, then being fat is no more your fault than catching a cold. There's no personal responsibility involved. You are a victim.

But the obesity "crisis" is more like the "epidemic" in foreclosures: A result of poor personal choices made by individuals, with the consequences mostly borne by those responsible for the behavior.

Before Connecticut takes too much pride in having the second lowest obesity rate in the nation, remember that affluence and good health are correlated. Until modern times, poverty and being thin went together. In America today, for the first time in human history, it's the reverse: Poor people are more likely to be fat than the wealthy. Not long ago, most people got paid to exercise by working on the farm. Today we pay to exercise by buying gym memberships. This is progress. Cheap, abundant food is something to be grateful for.

Yes, being very overweight is associated with health problems measured in shorter lifespans and higher Medicare and Medicaid expenditures by taxpayers. But let's carry the argument that public health costs justify paternalistic government a few logical steps further.

People who die prematurely save taxpayers money in lower health insurance and Social Security costs. If it's about the money, shouldn't government encourage obesity, maybe even subsidize processed fatty foods instead of taxing them?

Maybe government should tax fat people more than skinny people, since the former cost us more. IRS tax forms could have lines for adjusted gross income and your body mass index. The higher your BMI, the higher your tax bracket.

If government has a responsibility to keep us thin, what we really need is government-run exercise programs. The new Department of Waistline Security could organize mandatory group calisthenics on the state house lawn every half-hour starting at dawn.

That government doesn't do these things — yet — suggests that Twizzler taxes are as much about feeding bloated government with another politically palatable revenue stream as they are about encouraging healthy choices by citizens.

There are free-market approaches to promoting fitness. Public and private insurance programs could offer discounts to people who exercise regularly, so healthy people don't subsidize less healthy people. Instead of advertising bans or taxing certain foods, manufacturers can be free to promote the health benefits of their products, in the same way many companies now emphasize their environmental sensitivity to appeal to consumers. Don't blame restaurants for competing for market share; you were going to eat anyway.

Final advice: Stay away from hot dog eating contests. Or maybe government should make them illegal?

Fergus Cullen is executive director of the Yankee Institute, a free-market think tank with offices on the campus of Trinity College. He can be reached at fergus@yankeeinstitute.org.